Physical attributes

Species

Powers

Alignment

"Love doesn't exist. There is no such thing as love. Therefore, there's no sorrow. That's what I thought."

―Satan

Satan serves as the primary antagonist in the anime Devilman Crybaby. They were an Angel who was banished to Earth following a fallout with God. Under the care of Psycho Jenny, they took the form of a human boy named Ryo Asuka who befriended a young Akira Fudo. Years later, they planned to destroy humanity by turning them against each other by revealing the presence of demons.

Contents

Appearance

As Ryo Asuka, he is a lean young man with his blonde hair styled short with the back fully shaven, as well as piercing blue eyes. He is always seen in white clothes including a large overcoat.

As Satan, they are displayed as an intersex being with breasts and male groin area. Their blonde hair grows longer reaching their shoulders and becomes wavy. Wearing no clothes, their body is covered in a veil of light. All around their body are six pairs of white wings with six large ones on their back, and a pair of smaller ones atop the head and the sides of their legs respectively.

Personality

At first, as a child washed up upon land Ryo Asuka came across as unfeeling to other children and would consider mercy killing for anything that can't be saved. As a young man he was very forward and sure of himself. He took practical steps for what was at hand even if they involved breaking several Japanese laws such as owning and using an array of guns and driving with an American driver's license. Ryo is also willing to kill anyone to protect Akira's secret as Devilman as he did with Koji Nagasaki and his mother.Ryo himself did not initially believe in love or suffering, being rather apathetic to these feelings. His encounter with Akira and his kindly demeanor however showed his more vulnerable side as he fell in love with Akira. Ryo became very empathetic and supportive of Akira. They had bottled up all of their frustrations of the unfortunate realities he had faced. Ryo strove to create a better world free of the demons and regardless of the number of lives lost. But even then, he knew his actions would have dire consequences, giving Akira a choice before going any further in their plans. Like any other human he expressed horror at being attacked by demons, and concern with the possibility that someone had recorded Akira in his Devilman form. A deep seated fear was shown in response to the flash of light caused by God that wiped out an American Navel Fleet.

As Satan, the humanized Ryo aspect of his personality largely disappeared. Rather than fight the demons and defend humans, they instead used demons to eradicate humanity seeing them as a weak species. They also share their aversion to demons from their Ryo personality having no love for demons as a whole, but saw their more simplistic lifestyles as better as their adaptations made better chances for survival. The Devilmen themselves however were seen as an unintended consequence that they planned only for Akira. Satan also revealed their love for Akira, subconsciously going out of their way to prevent his death by making him strong enough.

Relationships

Ryo has known Akira since early childhood and the two formed a close and valued friendship. Through Akira, Ryo came to learn about human emotions, like love and kindness. Their bond was meaningful in that it caused a previously socially withdrawn Ryo to hug and show affection to Akira. Even though Akira may have previously fallen under Ryo’s definition of “weak” he had changed this stance where it concerned him, to where he took great measures to defending Akira. Ryo continued to do this very effectively even after Akira’s assimilation with Amon.

Ryo became very attentive and insightful to Akira’s feelings, apologizing for dragging him into dangerous events for them all even though it was the only way. When Akira says he can’t remember what happened to the other party guests at the Back Sabbath party, though Ryo knows first-hand that they were all horribly killed as he watches Devilman on his laptop tearing the demons apart, he says that Akira saved the people too to spare Akira any emotional pain.

Ryo fell in love with Akira over their friendship, to the point that he spurs Akira's possession and the events of the series, in hopes of Akira being able to survive the impending battles with demons. Akira is also the only person Ryo ever cared about, as he never showed genuine concern for anyone else even his guardian Jenny, opting to kill or scapegoat them instead.

By the time they are revealed to be Satan, they still possess the love they have for Akira, but this Satan side no longer appears to have any concept of how Akira might feel. They were seemingly under the impression that they have both made it out of the end of the world and can finally be together, oblivious to the fact that Akira has lost everything and experienced daunting hardships. Further, the revelation that Satan instigated the collapse of civilization that resulted in said events did not sit well with Devilman. He fought with Satan until the end with the fallen angel forced to kill Devilman. Whilst contemplating the stars and previous events together, Satan realizes Akira has died. With that, the love he has for Akira overcame the Satan aspect and Satan was forced to reflect and reverse his previous viewpoint, with Satan realizing love does exist, therefore there is sadness.

They were also close to Jenny, who had served as Ryo's guardian and assistant since taking him away as a child. Always being near Ryo's side, she provides him everything he needs including food and setting up appointments with clients. This extends to her true form as the demon Psycho Jenny, assisting in Satan's plan to wipe out humanity. She defends Akira as well on Ryo's behalf.

Abilities

As Ryo he earned a Ph.D at a young age and even taught classes. He could translate an Amazonian tribes language. He was an accomplished driver and mechanic, driving a modified sports car to keep up with a demon and using to hold his equipment. He carries an assortment of guns including a machine gun, an anti-material sniper rifle, and a pistol. Ryo also had an unnaturally fast healing factor, able to heal and recover from serious injuries that would have crippled regular humans (although, this may be because he is an angel). He is also a keen manipulator, able to control people and events to the point of total domination.

As Satan, they are able to reincarnate at any place and time. Ever since their incarnation as a male human child, he displayed abilities such as making plants grow, killing animals with thought, causing water to materialize, create force fields, and powerful telekinetic force. Once fully revealed, they are able to fire powerful beams of light that can tear the moon in half. They can also summon lightning bolts to attack certain areas.

History

Ryo first arrives at some docks where he defends Akira from a gang of delinquents. He thinks nothing of carrying around a machine gun within his coat, and firing multiple bullets in front of their path as a warning. Akira excitedly runs up to him and they embrace before abruptly leaving together without Miki in the sports car Ryo arrived in.

Ryo explains how he is aware demons will be returning to the world and so takes Akira to an underground party. Not content with the debauchery occurring around them, Ryo amps things up a notch by attacking party goers with a broken glass bottle to help speed up the summoning of Demons. The demons do indeed arrive and the party is quickly engulfed in terror as the demons violently assimilate with the human party goers. Ryo, satisfied with this horrible turn of events manages to fend off the rapidly appearing and advancing demons with his machine gun. In the midst of the scene Ryo calls upon an "Amon" to possess Akira and continues to record the unfolding chaos on his camcorder. A large bird-like demon falls dead on top of him pinning him to the floor, but he witnesses Akira and the demon Amon successfully transforming into Devilman.

Ryo is recovering at his own penthouse after being rescued from the demons by Akira. He comes to visits to check on him. After hugging fondly, Ryo explains the fusion to him, and they travel together to find demons to test Akira’s fighting ability.

Walking on a crutch and also able to see in the dark thanks to some headgear, Ryo and Akira locate three demons responsible for the murder of people, Eader, Urutph and Nafiro. Ryo films Devilman effortlessly dispatching the three demons, before being shocked as he notices the presence of another human. He notices the infrared light from a camera meaning that this person also has recordings of Akira as Devilman. The man ignores Ryo’s requests to wait, fleeing from the demons whilst they were distracted. Panicked, Ryo turns to Akira, in the middle of tearing apart the demons, and tells him there was someone other than him filming him. Specifically he managed to record Akira changing into a devil.

Ryo and Akira discuss the potential repercussions of Nagasaki’s recording getting on the internet. Ryo see’s to Akira’s concern by holding him close and telling him not to worry, he’ll make sure no one see’s the video.

At his penthouse Ryo works on finding out the identity of the person on his laptop while Akira brings him snacks from the grocery store. Though trying to concentrate he does not resist Akira shoving a hamburger in his mouth, or when he lifts him up under to arms to try out the pool that he doesn’t go in. Ryo goes along with it being testing the pool clothes and all with Akira jumping in after him. Drying themselves off, his computer uses security camera footage to see an image of Nagasaki appear on the screen and he at once sets out with Akira to locate the person’s house and computer with the video footage.